The Death of The Shadow
by DARK KNIGHT of the MOON
Summary: One possible future for Lamont Cranston and the Shadow universe. Related indirectly to The Mystery of the Mad Doctor


**The Death of The Shadow: The Story of a Man Who Lost Everything**

**By: Greg Daulton**

The darkness of night overwhelmed the Cranston mansion as Lamont Cranston lay awake in the master bedroom. The usual thoughts haunted him. He had been a recluse since the death of his true love, Margo Lane, about five years earlier. It was 1960 and by now Cranston was much older, having retired from a boring life of philanthropy. Also gone was Cranston's dark secret: his crusade as a dark masquerading vigilante, who had kept order in the world, saving it from itself many times over.

The thunder rolled loudly outside his bedroom window. The mansion didn't have many windows anymore, as Cranston had remodeled most of the mansion, as a fortress, to not let anyone in, or better yet, to never let out the dark secret of The Shadow. Over the years, the man living in the spooky mansion had grown ashamed, bitter. He had fired his butler about three years ago, and even went as far as to have the mysterious Sanctum sealed up, brick for brick, so no one would ever know the terrible secret that Cranston carried around inside him.

The Shadow was dead. All that remained was a frail, angry shell of a man that stayed in the safety of his manor house. The agents, those brave souls that risked their lives at the Shadow's every whim, well, most of them had either died in service to the Shadow, or left New York City entirely, retiring from their lives of clandestine operation. The only agent that hadn't skipped town was Moe Shrevnitz. He was seventy years of age now and still working. Only now he was the manager of the Sunshine Cab Company's Midtown Branch.

Cranston sighed as he remembered his former life which seemed so long ago. He missed everyone very much, especially Margo, who was the reason that the Shadow was no longer around. He thought back to that night in 1950, the night that he found out that Margo Lane was dead. God, Cranston couldn't believe that it had been nearly ten years. But it wasn't the Lone Tiger or the Voodoo Master or Shiwan Kahn that had taken her away from him. No, this was different…

* * *

Sometime during the Shadow's crusade, Margo Lane had grown weary of serving the Shadow and constantly fearing for his life. She decided to leave Cranston and the Shadow behind. Wanting to start her life anew, she left New York City, moving to Europe for a short time. Exactly six months after she had left the city and said goodbye to Cranston, she was found dead, murdered, in a hotel room somewhere in Russia. When Cranston received word of this a few days later, the Shadow pulled all of his resources and launched an investigation into her death. What he found was disturbing. It appeared that Margo's death had been in the works for years.

Sometime in 1940, the Shadow had battled a powerful gang in New York City called the Zerrini Gang. With the help of a mysterious mad scientist the city had dubbed The Mad Doctor, this gang had orchestrated a ransom on the Mayor's life. As expected, The Shadow put an end to the Zerrini gang, killing Zerrini. The Mad Doctor's mansion fortress was destroyed and in order to rescue the Mayor the Shadow left the Mad Doctor for dead.

But the Mad Doctor wasn't dead. He had somehow escaped, and unbeknownst to the Shadow, began stalking the Shadow and his agents. Being one of few villains to figure out the true identity of the Shadow, the Mad Doctor knew that many people in the underworld would pay well for this secret. Selling his secret to the Russian mafia, the Mad Doctor requested that he be paid 100,000,000 dollars, the original sum of the ransom on the Mayor of New York City's life. But he didn't stop there, the Mad Doctor wanted revenge, so he asked the mafia to orchestrate a hit: the murder of Margo Lane, the Shadow's one true love.

So the mafia bided their time for about a decade, tracking Margo Lane, waiting for the most opportune moment to carry out their customer's wishes. And ten years after the Shadow had initially defeated the Zerrini gang and the Mad Doctor, Margo Lane was in Russia, and soon she would be dead.

The Shadow's investigation had run cold for some time, but with the help of his agents, he eventually figured out that the Russian mafia was behind it. He even went so far as to kill the actual gunman and bring down the local mafia in Vladivostok, but was never aware that the Mad Doctor was behind it. As far as he was concerned, the Mad Doctor died in 1940 in a furious explosion.

Shortly after avenging her death, the Shadow held a meeting in his Secret Sanctum, with every agent he had ever recruited present. He informed all of them that their duties as agents were no longer required and revealed his deepest secret to them. Everyone was shocked, but as Cranston explained what had happened, the agents knew that he couldn't go on being the Shadow.

The Sanctum was sealed up, the Manor renovated and every one of the Shadow's cloaks and hats were burned, the ashes put into a box and buried somewhere on the grounds of the manor. The infamous twin .45 automatics were sold to a pawn shop, the guns that had seen many battles, taken and spared many lives, simply cast away like garbage. Yes, Cranston had made every effort to distance himself from that part of him, but soon realized that it was ingrained in him and would always be there to haunt his psyche like a ghost on a chilling winter's night.


End file.
